


Gordon in Wonderland

by buunbi



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Alcohol, Alice In Wonderland AU, M/M, Tommy/Darnold/Forzen but it’s pretty minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:27:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24544609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buunbi/pseuds/buunbi
Summary: After finding and following an incredibly strange rabbit while trying to ignore the weird mess his life had turned into, Gordon finds himself in a world that can be most aptly described as ‘trippy as fuck, bro’.It’s an Alice in Wonderland AU, I don’t know what more you want me to say.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 23
Kudos: 236





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Heeey y’all should follow me on Tumblr ;p my hlvrai blog is @teams-nice  
> Also I drew a poster,, cover,, thing for this and posted it there woo https://teams-nice.tumblr.com/post/620024849029627904/some-sorta-movie-poster-type-thing-for-this-au
> 
> Also sorry if this is kinda incoherent it is 8am and I have not slept

There were so many places Gordon wished he could be, that very specifically were _not_ at his ex-wife’s Beetlejuice-themed wedding. Such places included the sewers, naked in the shower while someone broke into his house, and under a pile of burning rubber.

He had put in the minimum amount of effort possible while still staying within the dress code; grey and black striped leggings, grey boots, a plain grey t-shirt, and a white varsity jacket with orange accents for colour. He felt it accurately conveyed how much he was not into this, even if it gave him the chance to hang out with his son for a while.

‘A while’ being about five minutes as he kept getting carted away by various relatives of the newlyweds who didn’t even bother to hide the fact that they thought Josh was going to get ‘corrupted’ just by being near the man. Gordon had no clue what their problem was, his and Maria’s divorce had been mutually agreed upon. Though, he supposed, that fact didn’t make it any more fun to watch her get married to someone else.

And so he sat, and he watched everyone else having fun at the reception, and he waited until he thought it was an appropriate time to leave. Games on his phone helped ease his boredom, but the battery was dwindling by the minute and he ended up putting it away when it was at 20% just in case someone tried to call him, not that that happened often.

_Who had a Beetlejuice-themed wedding anyways?_ He didn’t even know Maria was all that into the movie. At the very least she never brought it up while they were together.  
  


The number of striped clothes moving around the outdoor dance floor was making him nauseous, so he got up from his seat, leaving the empty table behind to wander through the trees nearby, a near-empty wine glass nursed in his hands. He had been to Maria’s aunt’s large estate a few times before and knew his way around well enough that he was confident he wouldn’t get lost.  
  


He often wondered why his ex still tried to include him in things like this; he’d even been invited to a funeral at one point, but unfortunately had to turn her down on that occasion.Gordon let out a sigh, downing the last of his wine and turning to head back to the party.  


Then he heard a rustling in the hedges nearby.

Logic told him it was probably just a fox or something. The soft voice drifting from where the bushes moved told him otherwise.

He quietly moved over to the hedgerow, careful not to startle whatever or whoever was in there. He hoped to God it wasn’t a couple from the party that had wandered off to... get intimate.

Thankfully for Gordon, it was not; he pushed the leaves and branches aside to reveal a rather large, dark brown rabbit blinking up at him with bright blue eyes. This is not something that would normally be considered remarkable, but for the fact the rabbit was also sporting a rather fancy, mustard yellow satin waistcoat.

Gordon blinked back at the rabbit. “Uh... hi.” He wasn’t really expecting a response, mainly just for it to run away.

Which it did, after exclaiming “ _Fuck_!” rather emphatically. Gordon stood in stunned silence for a moment before following after where he could still hear the rabbit running through the hedges.

“H-hey! Wait!”

He was half-convinced he had tripped and hit his head on a rock during his wanderings because he sure as hell wasn't drunk enough to be seeing talking rabbits dressed in people clothes. If this was what his brain was giving him in his dying moments, he figured he ought to just go along with it. Not much else he could do.

He ran after the rabbit until it darted out of the bushes and behind a large oak tree. Gordon approached the tree to try and investigate when the animal didn’t appear out the other side, finding a large hole that he assumed to be the entrance to its burrow amongst the exposed roots.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered Maria and Joshua calling out to him from the party area, before he made the incredibly sober and intelligent decision to go into the rabbit hole.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a slow start, but next chapter should be a lot more fun :p this is really easy to write because I already know the story so well lol  
> Though obviously there are gonna be some big changes
> 
> Also small tw for a reference to drink spiking

Gordon had no clue how long he’d been falling, but he knew it was a while.

Bright colours flashed past him, giving him a headache as he struggled to keep his glasses on his face. He’d been turned around so many times he no longer knew which way was up; every direction he looked was just the same technicolour mess.

Just as he was wondering if he was ever going to land, his back hit the solid ground surprisingly gently. It felt more like flopping back on one of those foam mats they used in gymnastics than the drop onto hard tiles that it was.

He took a moment to compose himself and reconcile with his surroundings. The rabbit hole seemed to have completely vanished, and he was in some kind of grand entrance hall. Sitting up and looking around, he realised the room was almost entirely bare but for a fireplace, some curtains that didn’t seem to hide any windows, and a glass table with a large old-fashioned key on it.

Grunting, Gordon stood up. 

“What the fuck is this place…?” He muttered to himself. Walking over to the table he picked up the key, inspecting it closely. He didn’t see anything unusual about it; just a boring old key. He wasn’t sure what he expected. He set it back down where he found it, moving to investigate the curtains.

Pushing most of them aside he didn’t find anything besides plain bare walls. At the last two, however, there were two doors. One was perfectly ordinary, the other seemed to be about the size of one of those cat doors. Gordon was still working with the theory that this was some weird dream he was having, so he decided not to question this.

Instead, he tried opening the normal door to no luck, then the smaller door with the same result. Being the incredibly intelligent man he was, he figured they were locked and decided to try using that old key.

The key didn’t work on the large door, but easily unlocked the small one. Getting down on his stomach to peer through the doorway, he saw that it seemed to lead to some kind of dilapidated garden with strange creatures running throughout. He slammed the door shut just as one of them lunged towards him. That was far too many eyes for any one animal.

Unfortunately for Gordon, that garden was the only way he could see out of this room. He was simply too big to get there. Turning around to try and figure out if there was maybe another way, such as through the chimney, he spotted something on the table that he hadn’t seen there before.

There was a small frosted glass bottle filled with a strange orange substance. On closer inspection, there was a paper tag tied to it that read ‘Drink Me’ in neat cursive handwriting.

Considering the fact that the liquid inside was bright orange and bubbling, drinking it was the last thing Gordon wanted to do. However, also considering the dream theory, he supposed it couldn’t hurt. Setting the key aside on the table and uncorking the bottle, he took the smallest sip he could. Registering that it seemed to taste like a regular orange soda rather than anything particularly dangerous, he took a larger mouthful, draining the small bottle.

With the bottle placed back on the table, he waited for something to happen. It took a moment before he realised the table seemed to be growing, or alternately that _he_ was _shrinking_.

“Oh, what the _fuck_!?” He tried to jump up to catch on to the edge of the table, but he was already too small. He was afraid for a moment that he’d keep shrinking forever until he no longer existed, but eventually, his reverse growth did stop. 

After a few deep breaths to calm himself, he decided he’d try again at the small door. He was pretty well the perfect size to go through it now, so hopefully it had stayed unlocked. Unfortunately, it had not. Gordon looked up at the key through the underside of the glass table, then back at the door.

“Well, what am I supposed to do now?”

He fell back to sit on the ground but found himself stopped by something that had suddenly appeared behind him. He stood back up to turn around and investigate, finding an ornate glass box filled with… candy in the shape of pizza slices? The words ‘Eat Me’ were inscribed on the top of the box.

Pushing open the lid, he lifted one of the candies out. 

“If the soda made me smaller, then…”

He took a large bite out of the soft sugary sweet, immediately increasing in size.

“Woah, okay…”

Before he knew it, he had grown far past his original size and his head was butting up against the ceiling. When he felt pain upon hitting his head, he realised this may not be a dream like he thought. You weren’t supposed to feel pain in dreams.

He was beginning to freak out a bit, not knowing what he was supposed to do now. The shrinking soda was gone, he wouldn’t even fit through the regular door now, everyone who cared at the wedding was probably wondering where he went, and he was still tipsy from the wine he’d drank. He didn’t know what was happening and panic began to creep its way into his chest.

He managed to get into some sort of curled up position against the wall, not caring as his foot pushed the glass table to the other side of the room. He sat there for a while, forehead resting against his knees as he tried not to cry.

“Are you alright?”

Gordon looked down at the soft voice below him. In the now open regular doorway, stood what at first appeared to be a regular human. What betrayed this appearance was the long rabbit-like ears and fluffy tail. A familiar pair of blue eyes blinked up at him. Gordon realised that this man was somehow the rabbit he had followed down here, and he almost wanted to get mad but if he was being honest with himself this mess was his own fault.

“Do I _look_ like I’m alright?” If Gordon was smaller and had more room to move he would’ve made some kind of wild gesture, but as it was he just ended up hitting his hand on the wall.

“Well, how am I supposed to know? I don’t know what you look like at any other time.” 

“A lot smaller, generally.”

The rabbit-man looked puzzled for a moment, before seemingly realising something with a quiet _oh_.

“I have just the thing!” He reached into one of his pockets, producing a bottle of what looked like the same substance Gordon had drunk earlier. He pulled out the cork stopper and held it up to Gordon, who very carefully accepted. After pouring the contents into his mouth he began to shrink again, eventually ending up perfectly back to his usual size. He let out a sigh of relief, then stood and walked over to the rabbit-man.

“Thanks, man.”

“No problem!” The rabbit-man grinned at him. “My name’s Tommy, what’s yours?”

“Uh… Gordon Freeman.”

“Nice to meet you!” Tommy thought for a moment, then asked, “What are you doing in here, anyway?”

“I…” Gordon wasn’t really sure how to answer that, and thankfully Tommy seemed to notice.

“Ah well, I always like making new friends, so you can come with me now!” He smiled, but it faltered after a second. “I mean, if you want to. You- you didn’t really, uh… seem to be doing much besides being sad in here.”

Gordon couldn’t argue with that. “Yeah, sure, dude. Lead the way.”

Tommy’s grin returned full force.

He led Gordon through the perfectly ordinary door out into a beautiful forest. It was filled with all sorts of plants and creatures Gordon had never seen before, and he was once again not fully convinced this wasn’t a dream. Had someone spiked his wine?

There were butterflies with actual buttered bread for wings, dragonflies that looked just like small dragons, and horseflies that looked just like small horses.

“What… is this place?” Gordon looked around in awe, eyes wide with wonder at the glowing plants and twisted trees with rainbow leaves. Tommy giggled at him.

“Mr Freeman, this is _Wonderland_!”


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You ever write something all in like one sitting and by the end you’re not sure if it’s coherent or not?  
> Anyways yeah I hope this chapter is like, legible. I think it is but who knows. If it isn’t I can just say it’s like.. themes. Yeah.

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

Tommy had to leave not long after helping Gordon, but he’d directed him towards a nearby signpost that pointed in many directions with names Gordon didn’t understand.

The voice he had heard came from up in a tree to his left, and looking up he saw some kind of grinning cat-man sitting cross-legged on a branch that did not look strong enough to hold his weight.

“Excuse me?” Gordon raised an eyebrow at him.

“Huh?” His bright yellow eyes shone out of the shadows cast across his face, blinking in confusion.

Gordon crossed his arms. “You just said I’m not supposed to be here.”

“Uh, yeah you might be um... stealing.” The cat-mans tail swished as he spoke. There was a bright blue bow tied around the middle of it that seemed out of place next to his otherwise grey... cat Halloween costume? Gordon wasn’t sure what to call the outfit he had on.

“What could I—?”

“You got some ID, bro?”

Gordon blinked a couple of times. He decided this conversation wasn’t worth his time and picked a random direction to just start walking.

“I wouldn’t uh... go that way. If I was you.”

With a sigh, Gordon turned back to the cat-man. “Why not?”

“That’s, uh...” he smacked his lips, “castle’s that way. No good.”

“Then where do you suggest I go?”

The cat-man hopped gracefully down from his perch, somehow landing right next to Gordon despite being a considerable distance from him. Gordon noted that unlike Tommy, who had been about the size of a Flemish giant rabbit, he wasn’t the size of a large housecat. He was still short, but in a more human sense.

“Tea party.” He said simply. “I’m gonna follow you to make sure yo- you aren’t stealing.”

Gordon rolled his eyes, but since he had no clue where anything was he figured he had no choice but to follow after the cat-man as he led the way towards this... ‘tea party’. Ideally, he’d be going back to the wedding but... well, that was a lie. He still didn’t really want to be there even if his current situation had him constantly on the verge of a panic attack.

Despite the shade the trees provided it was quite warm out, and he found himself having to take off his jacket to tie it around his waist. His thick, curly hair sat against his neck, which was not a pleasant sensation by any stretch, but he couldn’t really do much about that besides manually hold it out of the way. He cursed himself for forgetting to bring a hair tie. He wondered how the cat-man dealt with it, his hair being decently long and an incredibly fluffy looking mess.

“Do you have like... a name?” Gordon asked after a few minutes of walking.

“Benrey.”

“Benrey?” The oddness of it almost made Gordon stop in his tracks. He wasn’t sure what he expected considering where he was, but Tommy had a fairly normal name so he kind of thought that theme would carry through.

“Yup.”

“Mine’s Gordon.”

“... ‘S a dumb name.”

“Wh—?”

“Your name’s stupid. The f- the fuck kind of name is ‘Gordon’?”

“A perfectly normal one.”

Benrey didn’t give a proper response, instead stopping to look up at where Gordon was holding his hair off his neck.

“You gonna fix that?” At Gordon’s confused frown, Benrey moved his tail in front of himself, untying the blue bow and holding it out to Gordon. “You’re too slow... thinkin’ too much ‘bout your hair.”

Gordon cautiously took the ribbon, checking it over (for what, he didn’t know) before deciding it seemed safe and using it to tie his hair up. He tied the best bow he could, not being able to see it. It felt fine, at least.

“Uh, thanks.”

Benrey said nothing and turned to continue walking. Gordon shook his head and followed after him.

They eventually reached the tea party, the sun that was previously high in the sky seemingly setting even though they couldn’t have been walking for more than fifteen minutes.

There were three people, one being Tommy, sat at the large table that was set for far more than that. Looking closer, Gordon noticed a fourth person who seemed to be part dormouse half hanging out of one of the various teapots. He, Tommy, and a bulky man who could’ve been another rabbit or possibly a hare were talking together animatedly.

At the head of the table sat an old man in an incredibly clashing outfit of greens and blues and purples, a ratty old silk top hat on his head. He was sipping tea and looking up into the trees with a contemplative look.

“Yo, brought you a new, uh... a new friend, Coomer.” Benrey announced, jabbing his thumb in Gordon’s direction. The man in the hat, apparently named Coomer, perked up so much that even his previously drooping bow tie sprung into shape. The other three turned to look too, Tommy’s face breaking from a soft smile into a grin.

“Hiya, Mr Freeman! I didn’t know you were gonna be here!” He greeted with a wave. Coomer brightened even more at this.

“Ohoho, so you’re this Freezing fellow our dear Tommy has been talking about!”

Gordon wasn’t sure how much there could’ve been to talk about; he and the rabbit had only spoken for maybe five minutes before Tommy took off. Then again, it can’t be every day that one finds a giant having a panic attack in a small pocket dimension.

“Uh... Free _man_ , but yeah. You can just call me Gordon, though.”

“Well then, hello, Gordon!” Coomer grinned and gestured at the table. “Why don’t you two sit down and join us!”

Gordon sat across from Tommy and the other two, while Benrey decided to... float. Above the table.

Tommy introduced the hare and the dormouse as his boyfriends, Forzen and Darnold respectively. So far Tommy was the only one with a ‘real’ name. Darnold climbed out of the teapot he was in, a jangling sound accompanying him. He had a length of string tied around his waist, a collection of small potion bottles tied to it. Gordon recognised the orange growing potion, alongside a blue liquid he hadn’t seen before.

“So, Alice, what brings you to Wonderland?” Coomer asked. He spoke into his teacup, causing the tea to spill out and splash on the table. Gordon frowned. _Where did he get that name from?_

“Uh, my name’s Gordon, sir.” Coomer blinked at him blankly. _Okay then_. “And, um, I kinda ended up here by accident?”

“I’m sorry about that, by the way. You’re missing out on your party because of me.” Tommy piped up, voice and face apologetic, seemingly having remembered Gordon chasing after him. Gordon waved him off.

“Not your fault. It wasn’t... it wasn’t a good party anyway.”

“Why not?” Darnold asked. He had moved into an empty teacup, munching on a chunk of a jam and cream covered scone that Forzen had given him. Gordon grimaced slightly.

“It was the reception of my ex’s wedding.”

Darnold, Tommy, and Coomer’s expressions all shifted to ones of sympathy. Forzen seemed to have a permanent scowl, and Benrey didn’t seem to have any expressions at all besides a persistent and slightly eerie sharp-toothed smile.

“Well, that does sound like shit.” Darnold hopped out of his teacup to give Gordon a comforting pat on the arm. Gordon gave him an appreciative smile.

Coomer suddenly stood up, exclaiming that he’d run out of tea and needed a new cup, forcing everyone at the table to rotate around a few places. Rather than rotate around himself, Coomer leapt up onto the table with an agility that seemed uncharacteristic of a man his age and started singing a rather silly song about ropes. The animal people joined in, and Gordon was left utterly bewildered. At one point he had to duck under the table to avoid getting splashed with a pot's worth of lukewarm tea.

Eventually, they all settled down again in their new places. Forzen, Tommy, and Darnold sat together at the head of the table, Coomer ended up right next to a still-stunned Gordon, and Benrey had seemingly disappeared altogether.

“Hello, Gordon!” Coomer smiled at him.

“Hi.” Gordon gave the strange man a wary smile in return. Something in Coomer’s eyes seemed both completely vacant and all-knowing at the same time, it was unnerving.

“Gordon, is something wrong?”

Gordon let out a long breath. _What wasn’t_ _wrong,_ _really?_

He had been handling everything pretty well so far, in his opinion. If he’d been a little more sober he knew he would’ve flipped out by now, but as it was the alcohol in his system served to keep him relatively calm. This was possibly because it was also preventing him from processing things properly, and he was still half-convinced this was just a dream.

He’d gone from normal to small to big to back to normal, there was all manner of strange creatures here, including animals that were actually people and apparently _Benrey_ at the very least could float and vanish at will.

He was happy he didn’t have to deal with the wedding party and the death glares of anyone over the age of forty, but sad because he didn’t get to spend the time with his son that he wanted to. Not that he would’ve gotten to talk to Joshua much anyway, with how his night was going.

It was taking everything in him, including the wine, to not panic and freak out at almost everything he saw. While he was gradually accepting that _hey, this may as well happen_ , it was still hard. He’d only been in Wonderland for forty-five minutes at most so he couldn’t really be expected to have dealt with everything in his mind just yet.

Oh, and he’d just been regaled with a musical tale about a hero using ropes on his quest that included far too many pits, which definitely wasn’t helping his processing speed.

Gordon relayed all of that to the man next to him, feeling kind of bad for dumping it on someone he just met, but something told him Coomer didn’t mind. He originally meant to leave out the parts about thinking the people at the table were odd, but once he got going he couldn’t stop. Thankfully none of them seemed to care.

“I feel like I’m going insane...” He finished.

“Is that such a bad thing?”

Gordon’s brows furrowed in confusion.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

Coomer thought to himself for a moment, moustache twitching. “Well, I’ve been alive quite a while, and in my many years on this earth, I’ve found that all the best people I’ve met have a touch of... _madness_ to them. Just look at me!” He gestured at his chest to emphasise his point, “even I don’t know what I’m on about a lot of the time! But I do my best to have a good time and be a good person.

The important thing is to have fun, and stick to your morals. I think, as long as you have fun here in Wonderland, you’ll be perfectly okay.”

Gordon took a moment to think that through. He could certainly see Coomer’s point. He sighed, picked up a teacup, and took a drink. It was cold.

“At the very least, this’ll make a good bedtime story to tell Joshua... if I ever get back.”

_“That’s_ the spirit!”

Gordon gave the old man a more genuine smile, then set down his teacup and stood up.

“I think... I’m gonna get going. It is lovely here, but if I’m gonna be in an unfamiliar place I may as well explore.” The animal folk waved Gordon goodbye before going back to whatever they were chatting about. It seemed to be potions.

“Ah, Time stops for nobody but me, I suppose. Goodbye, Gordon!”

Gordon had no clue what that was supposed to mean, but he brushed it off, said he’d see them all around, and carried on his way down the nearest path. Benrey was stood amongst the trees waiting and silently fell in step with him as he walked past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would’ve written out the song but like, screw that i suck at lyric writing  
> Also I’m working on proper character refs so when I finish and post all those I’ll link the post lol


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for this taking so long, the part with Bubby in it was absurdly hard for me to write lol  
> Also https://teams-nice.tumblr.com/post/620185378093219840/woo-okay-i-finally-drew-all-their-full-designs drew all the them 
> 
> Warning for drug mentions, specifically weed

“Where are we going now?” Gordon asked. He and Benrey had been walking for quite some time; the sun had set completely a while ago. Because of this, Gordon was relying pretty much completely on the sound of Benrey’s footsteps to guide him along the thankfully hazardless path.

“We gotta, uh... I got someone I gotta talk to.” Benrey replied, cryptic as ever.

“About what?”

“Stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“... y’know...”

Gordon did not know. He _did_ know that he probably wasn’t going to get a proper answer, so he elected to just drop the conversation. Gordon yawned loudly; it was nighttime at the wedding reception and a sort of double-nighttime for him now in Wonderland. He estimated that it would be nearly 1 AM back home, far past when he would normally sleep.

Benrey scoffed from somewhere in front of him.

“Does the baby need a nap?”

“Shut up.”

“Pfft, little baby Gordon needs a n- a _naaaaap_ haha...”

“I said shut up, dude. I do not need that shit right now.”

_“Cranky_ baby...”

Gordon sighed in frustration but didn’t dignify that with a response. Then he bumped right into Benrey.

“Yo, watch where you’re goin’ bro. We’re here.”

_‘Here’_ looked just like any other part of the forest.

“This is... nothing.”

“Shut up and drink this.”

Yet another glass bottle was thrust into Gordon’s hands, and he had to wonder where Benrey was keeping it. His clothes were skintight and didn’t seem to have any pockets. Maybe in his hair? After another split second of thinking Gordon decided he did not want to know.

“What is it?”

“The fuckin’... shrinking potion. ‘Cause you’re a cringe human and you can’t just shrink on your own. Fuckin’ fail.”

“Nope, I am done with growing and shrinking for today. I’m not doing this.”

All Gordon could see in the darkness was the glow of Benrey’s eyes and teeth ( _why were his teeth glowing??_ ) as the cat scowled.

“Whatever dude, I’ll just fucking leave you here then. In the dark. Alone. In this shitty fores—“

_“Fine!_ Fine, I’ll drink it!”

Gordon drank the bottle’s contents, feeling himself shrink again and watching as Benrey vanished from view. Gordon almost panicked, but as soon as he had reached his minimum height he spotted Benrey leaning up against a rock.

“Took ya long enough.” Benrey scoffed before turning to walk very decidedly away from the path they had been previously traipsing down. It took only about five minutes for them to reach their destination; a toadstool surrounded by small lanterns, a rather strange-looking old man perched atop the mushroom... _vaping._

The strange parts of his appearance were that he was blue and had four arms. That was _far_ too many arms.

“Who the fuck are _you?”_ The blue man asked, clearly directed at Gordon. Gordon frowned and opened his mouth to tell him off for being rude, but Benrey butted in before he could.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Benrey gestured for Gordon to stay where he was while he went over and talked to the blue man. Gordon impatiently waited, watching as what seemed to be a drug deal happened. What use would the people of this weird place have for... what he could only guess was weed? He also wondered why exactly he had been brought along for this, but since Benrey had assigned himself as his personal chaperone/tour guide it made some sense.

Gordon watched as the small cloth satchel of weed disappeared into thin air and Benrey spoke to the man for a few moments longer.

“Yo,” Benrey called back to Gordon, “you stay here I gotta- I got a thing to do.”

“You’re gonna leave me alone with a human? Really?” The blue man sneered, crossing both sets of arms.

“Don’t be a baby, h-“ Benrey paused for several seconds, eyes darting around, “he doesn’t do shit. Just fuckin’... stands.” Within a second Benrey had vanished, leaving Gordon to awkwardly avoid looking at the blue man.

“Hey, motherfucker, don’t be rude,” the blue man said, rudely, “who are you?”

Gordon’s wandering gaze snapped to the man. “Uh, my name’s Gordon. What’s yours?”

“Don’t have one.” The man turned up his nose in indignation.

“Everyone has a name, dude.” They were both silent for a moment, locked in a staring contest.

Then the man blinked. “Fine. Hmm... Bubby.” Gordon raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment; it wasn’t the weirdest name he’d heard that day. “Name’s and nonsense aside, who are you?”

“I j-“

“Names. _Aside_.” Bubby glared. _“What_ are you doing in Wonderland? Humans don’t just show up here willy-nilly, you know.”

“Wh- I dunno, I saw a weird rabbit and followed it down a hole because I drank a bit too much wine and didn’t want to deal with weird old women?” The statement came out as more of a question. Bubby sighed and shook his head as if Gordon was missing something obvious.

“ _Fucking dumbass humans_...” he grumbled, “you never come here without a reason. Everyone always has some _trouble_ to solve, or _lesson_ they need to learn that brings them here, so what’s yours?” Gordon frowned.

“I don’t- I don’t know? I dunno what to tell you, man.” Then, something seemed to dawn on Bubby’s face.

“Well, that settles _that,_ then.”

“What?”

Bubby’s answer was cut off by Benrey suddenly returning. He had a scratch on his cheek that wasn’t there before he left. On closer inspection, there were a few on the uncovered parts of his arms, too.

“Woah, dude, are you okay?” Gordon’s eyes were wide. Benrey seemed entirely unfazed.

“Huh?” It was only then that Benrey saw where Gordon’s eyes lay, and he glanced down at his own arms. The cuts and scratches there seemed to surprise him. “Oh, weird. That’s fuckin’... wild.”

Bubby glanced between the two of them. “You two can go, now. I’d quite like to take a nap.” He sneered.

“Sh’whatever, bro. Have fun being old.” Benrey grabbed Gordon by the sleeve and dragged him off in a seemingly random direction, much to Gordon’s protest.

“Hey, this is my favourite jacket! You’re gonna stretch it!”

“Stop being such a- stop being a little child.” Benrey teased, but ultimately let go of the sleeve. Gordon still followed closely behind him. He wanted to snap at Benrey for calling him a child, but even he could acknowledge how whiny he sounded.

“Where are we going?”

“I don’t, uh... I don’t got any of that shit that like, makes you big again yet so, somewhere s- a safe place until the sun’s back.”

“You- you shrunk me down for pretty much no reason, and you don’t even have a way to get me back to normal? Great.” Gordon pushed up his glasses to rub at his tired eyes. He could feel Benrey looking back at him in the darkness; or at least, he hoped it was Benrey.

“That fuckin’ asshole back there’s uh... ‘shroom thing has a bit that does the grow thing but I’m out of coins and he’s only gives stuff for coins. I needa ask Coomer for more.”

Gordon could barely process what the hell Benrey just said, but he got the idea. He was too tired to kick up any fuss.

Eventually, they reached the base of a tree. Gordon would call it a tall tree, but everything was tall to him at the moment.

“Up there’s uh... safe.”

Gordon looked where Benrey was pointing, to what seemed to be a hole a fair way up the trunk.

“And how are we gonna get up there, exactly?”

Benrey scoffed and in a second he was back to his normal size. He crouched down and laid his hand palm-up on the ground, waiting for Gordon to step on. While Gordon wasn’t entirely certain the cat wouldn’t just eat him, he took his chances and climbed on. He clung on to the short fluff of the glove he was sat on as Benrey stood back up, lifting Gordon closer to his face.

“Pfft, you’re so tiny. Tiny little man, can’t even get big on his own...”

Gordon glared as best he could at the frankly _terrifying_ bright yellow eyes that took up most of his vision. Benrey lifted his other hand to gently pat Gordon on the head a couple of times.

_“Hey-_ stop that! You’re gonna fuck up my hair!” He held his hands over his head in an attempt to protect himself. Benrey laughed to himself.

Once Gordon had been safely set inside the cosy hole in the tree, Benrey appeared beside him a second later. Gordon’s hair had, in fact, been fucked up, so he was in the process of untying and fumbling to re-tie the bow. Benrey snatched the ribbon from him, and for a second he thought that he was just taking it back to put back on his tail.

His protest died on his lips as he felt hands push his out of the way, carefully combing clawed fingers through his tight curls before tying the bow back in its place. It was decidedly neater than it had been before.

“... thanks.” Gordon was, in a word, stunned. Benrey was so careful and caring—

“Whatever, too fuckin’ incompetent to do your own hair... lil baby.”

Moment gone.

Gordon rolled his eyes and sighed. He moved to sit against one of the... walls? What’s it called when it’s inside a tree? Anyways, he sat against one of those things, eyes on Benrey. The cat didn’t really seem to know what to do.

“You good, man?” Yellow eyes snapped towards him.

“Wh? Yeah.”

“... are you gonna sleep?”

“Not good at it. Too cold here.”

“Why... don’t you go somewhere warmer then?” Gordon raised an eyebrow, “you don’t have to stay with me.”

“Nah, gotta make sure you’re not... stealing.” _And I’m kind of scared this might be a birds nest and I don’t want you getting eaten._

“Alright, fine.” Gordon sighed for what felt like the fiftieth time since meeting Benrey and shrugged off his jacket, holding it out to him. Benrey frowned at it for a moment. “You’re cold, it’s a jacket, take it.”

Benrey hesitantly took the jacket, staring at it in his hands for a moment. He pulled it on, and Gordon was amused at the fact that it was far too big on the smaller man. His hands just barely poked out of the sleeves. Benrey didn’t thank him, but he did sit close beside him, clearly revelling in the warmth from both the jacket and proximity to Gordon.

He really was acting just like a cat, even down to snuggling up to Gordon once he’d laid down and fallen asleep.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a filler chapter, but I think it’s cute so whatever  
> Also if you’ve left a comment on this I love you forever <3

Gordon was woken up the next morning by the very loud purring coming from beside him. At some point in the night he had ended up spooning Benrey, and Benrey had sort of draped his tail over Gordon’s waist to avoid it getting squished.

Gordon lay there for a few moments longer, surprisingly warm and comfortable despite the chill of the morning and the rough wood he had slept on. Unfortunately, he did have to get up eventually, sitting up carefully to not wake the sleeping cat, and stretching to cause those satisfying popping noises in his back. He readjusted his glasses, thankful he hadn’t been in a position that bent or cracked them. If he was staying in Wonderland another night he’d have to remember to take them off before crashing.

Looking down at Benrey, a thought crossed his mind. Every other animal person so far had been wearing fairly normal, if not kind of old-fashioned, clothes, yet Benrey was straight up just dressed like a cat. It was incredibly strange. He figured he’d ask about it when Benrey woke up.

He cautiously stood up, moving the fluffy dark blue tail away and stepping over Benrey so he could go look out of the entrance to the tree-cave they were in. The air outside almost seemed to sparkle from the sunlight filtering through the canopy of leaves above.

Benrey woke up in his own bubble of warm content, snuggling into the jacket that still smelled like the very pretty man he’d been leading around. He stretched much in the way a regular cat would before lying back down, head rested on his folded arms to just watch Gordon watch the day.

The ribbon in his hair had become loose again overnight and his hair was a bit of a mess, presumably because it had been left out loose. Benrey didn’t really know much about the care of curlier hair but he knew Forzen always at the very least braided his before he slept each night, and when they were younger and the hare’s hair was longer he’d keep it in a sort of bonnet thing.

Benrey wanted to tell Gordon he was pretty but like... subtly.

“You look like shit.” _Nailed it_. He heard Gordon sigh.

“Dunno what you expected me to look like when I’ve just woken up.” Gordon’s voice was rough from sleep. It sounded... nice. He hadn’t turned to look at Benrey, still just sitting cross-legged, elbows on his knees and chin in his hands as his eyes focused on a leaf drifting down to the ground. 

“... Not like shit?” Benrey finally got up, teleporting to sit behind Gordon and startling him.

“Don’t do that.” Gordon turned to him with a glare.

Benrey blew a raspberry at him, earning a scoff in response before Gordon turned back around. Benrey reached up to work on fixing Gordon’s hair, then realised it would probably be easier without his gloves creating static. He slipped them off, ignoring Gordon’s curious look as they were set on the ground beside him. That seemed to be enough warning that he barely flinched when Benrey began untying the ribbon again and combing his claws through the thick curls.

“Why do you dress like that, anyway?” Gordon asked quietly after a moment.

“Wh- huh?”

“I mean, everyone else here wears pretty regular clothes no matter what animal they are, but you’re actually dressed to look more like a cat.”

“Oh.” Benrey thought about it for a moment. He hadn’t really even considered trying to dress like everyone else. “You wanna- ya wanna hear my tragic backstory?”

“Your... your tragic backstory as to why you dress like someone trying to be a sexy cat on Halloween?” Benrey’s hands stopped moving.

“You think I’m sexy?”

“Tha- what?” Gordon turned to look back at him again. “No, it was- I was joking.”

“Oh.” Gordon shook his head and turned back around. “I’m, uh... not from here.”

“But you’re like... an animal person.”

“Lol and? Humans are from different places, right? Fuckin’... _dumbass._ Doesn’t even know what places are.”

Gordon raised his hands up in front of him. “Okay, fine, I get your point. Where are you from, then?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“You can just say you don’t wanna tell me, y’know.”

“You gotta get to uh- level ten before unlocking my full backstory.”

“What level am I at right now?”

“Like a... three.” In Benrey’s somewhat arbitrary friendship level system, Forzen and Tommy were the only people who had reached level ten.

Gordon blew a stray hair out of his face.

“Alright.”

* * *

Gordon had to ride around on Benrey’s shoulder as they set out for the day. It was a bumpy ride, but the soft, fluffy fabric of Benrey’s leotard thing at least gave him a good grip. He’d given Gordon’s jacket back before he grew back to his normal size, thankfully.

“Where are we going now?” Gordon asked once they’d gotten back to the actual path.

“Uh... dunno, castle I guess. Thought I’d just show ya some stuff first so we’re goin’ the long way.”

“Cool, cool.”

They walked along in silence besides Gordon asking about various plants and things. Benrey didn’t have very good answers most of the time. He did know enough that Gordon was satisfied most of the time, and whenever Benrey pointed out something like a small cabin or a crop of talking flowers he seemed delighted.

Benrey kept thinking about the other humans that had shown up in Wonderland. They were usually a lot younger than Gordon, generally kids or teenagers. Most adults would know better than to follow funny looking animals down random holes. Benrey always acted as the tour guide for them, or if not him it would be Tommy. Tommy usually got the kids and Benrey got the teens. Tommy was good with children.

He guessed Gordon would probably be only a couple of years younger than himself, which would make him the oldest human to ever end up in Wonderland. Maybe that’s why Benrey was so interested in him.

“What’s, uh...” Benrey started, then promptly forgot the rest of the question.

“What’s what?”

“Um...” _oh, yeah_ , “what’s your uh. What’s your life like? Normally?”

“Oh, uh... boring, I guess? I mean, work is pretty interesting, I’m a theoretical physicist so like, science.” Benrey had no clue what that meant. He was a physicist but only theoretically? Okay. “But, uh... my actual life is pretty dull unless my sons staying with me, which is only every three weeks and on special occasions. I’m too busy for the ‘every second week’ thing most divorced parents seem to do.”

“You got a kid?”

“Yeah! His name’s Joshua, he’s really cool. He loves cowboys and his favourite food is cashews.”

“Sounds, uh...” _come on Benrey, say something nice. What would Tommy say?_ “Sounds a bit shit.” _That is not what Tommy would say._ Gordon sighed.

“Well, he’s not shit. He’s a great kid.”

“Rad.”

Gordon didn’t have an answer for that. He occupied himself by looking around the forest. As they went on the flora got even more elaborate and twisted, but it also got much... spikier. At his small size, it felt as though a vine from one of the gnarled trees was going to reach out and grab him at any moment, and he found himself scooching closer to Benrey’s neck to hide partially under his hair.

“You good, bro?” Benrey noticed Gordon moving and stopped walking.

“Wh? Yeah, this part of the forest is uh... scary.”

Benrey scoffed. “Damn, little tiny... little baby. Baby man.”

“Shut up, asshole.”

There was a small shake in Gordon’s voice that made Benrey frown. He moved some of his hair over his shoulder just to ‘hide’ Gordon better from whatever he was scared of.

“It’s just ‘cause we’re closer to the uh... castle. Shit’s weird there.”

“More like shit looks like it’s gonna eat me. Is the castle where those weird dog things with the eyes are?”

“Peeper puppies? Yeah, and some other stuff.”

“Great.” Gordon did not think this was great in the slightest.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I’ve gotten like 2 fanarts for this fic and both times I’ve just been like ;~; ily  
> Also thank again for comments I’m anxiety and bad at answering things just know I love you and appreciate you *blow a kiss*

“Hey, question.” Gordon started, remembering something Benrey had said the previous day. “Didn’t you say that the castle’s ‘no good’?”

“No good alone. We had other places to go.”

“Ah.”

Gordon didn’t want to look at the scary forest around him anymore, so took to looking at Benrey. His scratches from the previous day had disappeared overnight, as if they’d never been there at all. Gordon wondered if he’d ever find out where they came from.

Remembering his phone at long last, he pulled it out of the pocket of his jacket where it had thankfully stayed overnight. Thank god for zippers. There was a large crack running through the screen and it was either broken or out of battery. Shame, he’d wanted to take pictures. He slipped it down into his boot for safekeeping in case he gave Benrey the jacket again.

The side of Benrey’s neck was really warm, and Gordon found himself starting to doze off from that combined with the rhythmic vibrating of the cats' footsteps. Why Benrey didn’t just teleport them to the castle, Gordon didn’t know. It was nice, though. He’d grown oddly attached to this weird cat man over the hours they’d spent together.

“Yo, bro there’s a fuckin’...”

Gordon shook himself awake and looked over to where Benrey was gesturing. There was a dilapidated looking cabin with a flourishing crop of bushes covered in those pizza candies out the front of it.

“You can, uh... be big again.”

“Why the hell is that there?”

Benrey made an ‘I don’t know’ kind of noise and shrugged the shoulder Gordon wasn’t sitting on. Gordon chalked it up to just one of the many weird things in Wonderland.

Truth be told, Benrey was enjoying getting to carry Gordon around. He was cute when he was so small. Gordon was enjoying it too, for the most part. Benrey _had_ been a bit demeaning at times. Gordon did, however, also want to be back to his normal size.

Benrey walked them over to the bushes, carefully picking Gordon off his shoulder to set him on a nearby tree stump. He plucked one of the candies off the bush and handed it to Gordon.

_Okay, smaller bite than last time. You don’t wanna be a giant again, Gordon._

He practically nibbled it, dropping it as he immediately began to grow bigger. Just as he was thinking he might’ve eaten too much, he stopped growing. Getting down off the stump, he at the very least felt like he was the right height this time.

The forest looked a lot less scary when he was 5’10”. It made him feel like a wimp because of how he acted before.

“You good now? Don’t need me to- to carry you around like a baby?”

“Stop calling me a baby, man, it’s weird.”

“Huh?”

Gordon rolled his eyes. Then, looking at Benrey’s ears flicking, a thought occurred to him.

“Hey, can I do something real quick?”

“Whuh? I dunno, can you?”

Gordon took that as a _‘yes’_ and reached out to scratch behind one of Benrey’s ears. The cats' eyes widened before his whole body relaxed, causing him to lean into Gordon. Gordon wrapped his other arm around his waist and let out a short laugh at the loud purring sound coming from his companion. He stopped after a few more seconds, but Benrey didn’t move away.

“D-don’t... do that...” he mumbled, voice muffled by the fact his face was buried in Gordon’s chest. “Fuckin’ embarrassing...”

“Aw, I thought it was cute.” Gordon smiled down at him.

Benrey looked up at him with wide eyes, slit pupils blown out into circles and a soft pink tinge to his cheeks. The grin that was permanently plastered on his face was gone, replaced by a much smaller but still rather toothy smile.

“You think I’m cute?”

“Uh...” Gordon was suddenly acutely aware of their position; standing in the middle of a forest with Gordon’s hands draped around Benrey’s waist, Benrey’s claws gently digging into his shirt. It was almost romantic. Gordon flushed red and pulled away, having to manually unhook the claws from his shirt.

“A-all cats are cute, man.”

He didn’t see the smile fall from Benrey’s face as he turned back towards the path. It was quickly replaced by that wide, forced grin as the smaller man jogged to catch up.

* * *

Within twenty minutes of slightly-uncomfortable silent walking, they had reached the castle. They looked up at the tall walls surrounding it, the large wrought-iron entrance gate wide open into what seemed to be a very thorny hedge maze.

“Why are we here, anyway?” Gordon only just thought to ask.

“You wanna go back to your shitty world, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well uh... the King’s the only one who can. Send you back.”

“What, so we just... ask him to send me back and he will?”

“Nah.”

Benrey didn’t elaborate, instead just walking straight into the maze. Gordon quickly followed.

Inside the maze was dark, tall bushes obscuring most of the sunlight. Gordon was kind of sick of walking around in the dark if he was being honest. He jumped when he felt something grab his hand, but calmed down when he saw it was just Benrey.

“Chill out, bro, I’m just makin’ sure ya don’t get lost.”

“... Thanks.”

The hold was definitely reassuring, not that Gordon would admit it. The way his hand was being held was slightly uncomfortable, however, so he ended up shifting so their fingers were intertwined.

Benrey was purring again.

Gordon couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened earlier. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to just say ‘yes’ and tell Benrey he thought he was cute. There was just something endearing about him, strange as he was. Curse Gordon’s big bi heart. He wondered what kissing someone with teeth that sharp would feel like...

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Benrey stopping abruptly. They were still in amongst the maze, so it couldn’t be because they’d reached the castle proper.

“Is something wrong?” Gordon asked, suddenly worried.

“Wanna kiss?” Benrey looked up and blinked slowly at Gordon. Gordon knew this was an affectionate thing cats did but had no clue why Benrey was doing it right now.

“W-why?!”

_You’re really pretty and cool and I’m scared that the King is gonna hurt you or send you back as soon as we get there, because he has done that before, and I just really wanna kiss you because this could be my last chance._

“I dunno. Why not?”

“I- uh...” Gordon couldn’t think of a reason why not. He _had_ just been thinking about kissing Benrey, it was almost as if the cat had read his mind. It just... didn’t feel like the right time just yet.“Not- I don’t... how about I give you a kiss on the cheek?” It was the best compromise he could think of. Benrey’s face lit up anyway.

_Better than nothing._

Gordon cupped one side of Benrey’s face with his free hand, placing a gentle, lingering kiss on the opposite cheek. The purring that he had pretty well tuned out got louder. When he pulled back both their faces were bright red. Neither really knew what to say so Gordon just cleared his throat and gestured back towards the path they were headed down.

Benrey’s grin was back to that smaller smile. He gripped Gordon’s hand tighter and walked closer to his side as they approached the castle. If Benrey got them lost or turned around on purpose a few times just to prolong their time together, that was his business.

The castle itself looked more like a rough collection of spires than any castle Gordon had seen before, miscellaneous strange creatures wandering around in the courtyard before the entrance. As they walked through the creatures cleared a path for them, Gordon correctly presuming it had something to do with Benrey.

The doorway hardly even counted as a door so they walked right on in with no trouble. After getting through the unguarded entrance hall they entered a dimly lit throne room, the only light coming through holes in the ceiling and walls, and from the glowing yellow eyes of the man seated in the throne.

“Ah, Mr Freeman. What a pleasure to meet you at last.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I WAS gonna make the boys kiss in that forest scene but it felt out of character so, made up for it with the cheek kiss lol  
> Also sorry this was mostly filler again lol hopefully it’s not too dry


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blah sorry this took a while and it’s shorter than other chapters, I kinda wrote myself into a hole so I’m just releasing this into the world as is and hoping I can do better on the next chapter. Sometimes if you get stuck on something you just gotta move on lol
> 
> Warning for a brief drug mention and uuuh violence/blood. Just a little

“Ah, Mr Freeman. What a pleasure to meet you at last.” The man made no other move to greet them.

“Wh- how do you know my name?” Gordon asked. Benrey’s grip on his hand tightened and a quick glance down at the cat showed his strained grin back in place.

“I know about everything that happens in Wonderland, thanks to—“

“Shut up.”

The King and Gordon both snapped their attention to Benrey.

_“Excuse_ me?” There was something dark in the King’s tone as he spoke.

“I s- I said ‘ _shut up_ ’. Your ears broken, old dude?” Benrey was practically crushing Gordon’s hand, and his free fist was shaking.

“Benrey?” Gordon whispered, voice soft. His glowing yellow eyes glanced up and- _oh._ Something must have shown on Gordon’s face because the King let out a low laugh.

“Ah, yes, Benrey has been doing some... work... for me. He and that rabbit boy are—“

“No.”

“— like my personal spies, watching over you humans to make sure you’re not... misbehaving. Unfortunately for you, Mr Freeman,” the King languidly stood up from his seat, “you, have been misbehaving.”

“Wh-what?!” He yanked his hand out of Benrey’s vice-like grip, turning an accusatory glare towards him. “What the fuck did you tell him?” Benrey just stared down at the ground.

“You have no purpose in Wonderland, Mr Freeman,” the King stated simply, “or at least, not one worth our time.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Gordon was beyond confused. “I just wanna go home, man.”

“We don’t always get, what we want.”

Then Gordon felt an impact on the back of his head, and he was out cold.

* * *

When Gordon came to, he had probably one of the worst headaches of his life. He could barely bring himself to open his eyes. He found himself in a dimly lit dungeon cell, but even that small amount of light had been enough to worsen the pain in his skull, so he squeezed his eyes back shut with a groan.

“Gordon?” _Hey, that was..._

Gordon forced his eyes back open and looked down (or, across since he was lying on the ground) to where the voice had come from.

“Darnold?”

Sure enough, there was Darnold, standing just outside his cell. Looking past him he saw Forzen and Tommy huddled together in a similar cell across from his.

“Wh- what are you guys doing here?” Gordon tried to sit up but ended up collapsing back against the stone. Darnold scurried over to him and pulled one of the small potion bottles from around his waist. It was filled with a bright blue liquid.

“Here, drink this.”

Gordon took the bottle and tipped the small amount of what looked and even somewhat tasted like Powerade into his mouth. His headache was cleared up within seconds.

“Thanks, dude.” He finally managed to sit up, and finally saw that somebody else was in the cell with him.

Benrey was still knocked out, and part of his hair was wet and darker than the rest. Darnold ran over to him next, pulling another potion from his stash and tipping it on the bleeding wound. Gordon tried not to feel bad about his frie- about the cat being hurt.

“Mr Freeman?” Tommy’s voice shook as he spoke. Gordon turned his attention to him. He looked scared. “Don’t- don’t blame Benrey for this. W-we always lie to the King and c-cover for humans if you do anything wrong, so if you fucked up it wouldn’t... Benrey wouldn’t have told him.”

“Who the fuck else would’ve?”

“Caterpillar.” That was the first time Gordon had properly heard Forzen speak. He had a thick French accent.

“Wh—?”

“Was that fuckin’... dipshit, Bubby.” Benrey groaned. He was half sat up, one eye still shut and a hand cradling his head. “Always does sh- does shit like that...”

“Wait, I’m sorry, he’s a _caterpillar?”_

Darnold shot Gordon a bemused look. “Is that really what’s important right now?”

“I- well, no—“

“Exactly.”

Gordon rolled his eyes and scooted over towards Benrey to see if he could help him. He supposed he’d just have to take their word that Benrey hadn’t betrayed him somehow.

“What could Bubby have told him, anyway? You’ve been with me this whole time, you know I haven’t done shit.” Gordon frowned.

He moved so Benrey could lay his head in Gordon’s lap. Tommy shot them an unreadable look when Gordon began running his fingers through Benrey’s hair, causing another loud round of purring. Benrey had seemingly vanished the blood away after he’d woken up but Gordon could still feel a bit of a lump where the wound previously was.

“No clue, bro... I’d know if you were fuckin’ shit up...” Benrey mumbled. His half-lidded eyes followed Darnold as he ran back over to Tommy and Forzen.

“Bubby thinks that, uh, humans don’t belong in Wonderland unless they came here for a s-specific reason...” Tommy explained, “so if he thinks you- you don’t have a reason to be here he’d... rat you out...”

“He has a very ‘get in, do what you gotta do, get out’ attitude towards humans.” Darnold added.

“Well... I did tell him I wasn’t sure why I was here, but how was I supposed to know this would happen!” Gordon made a wide gesture with his hands only to have one of them tugged back down by Benrey to continue running through his hair. “Still, doesn’t explain what he could’ve told the King, or why you guys are here.”

“Probably him you were stealing...” Benrey said. His eyes had closed again and he was lazily swishing his tail from side to side.

“Th- the King, he found out about Benrey and I lying to him... about past humans. Well... because Bubby told him about that, too. He threw Forzen and Darnold in here with me be- because they’re ‘accomplices’ or something...”

“Never trust blue caterpillars.” Forzen helpfully added.

Gordon gave him an odd look. “Uh, yeah, I’ll keep that in mind. Hey, Benrey, weren’t you buying drugs off him or some shit?”

“Huh? Yeah, he’s an ass but his shits’ good.”

Gordon sighed. He didn’t know how to answer that.

“Wha- what do you think’s gonna happen now?” Tommy asked, looking towards Gordon with pleading eyes.

“I don’t know, man. I don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How easy is it to tell that I’ve gotten to a point where I’m just winging shit lol


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not super happy with this chapter either tbh but it’s taken me so long I am once again just gonna push it out into the world lol. This is why I don’t write multi-chapter stuff like, ever. Next chapter is probably just gonna be a really short epilogue. Would’ve put it at the end of this one but I feel like where I cut it off is good lol

It was several hours of idle chatter before one of the strange creatures that roamed the castle came to take Forzen, Tommy, and Darnold who knows where. Gordon really hoped they’d be safe.

That left Benrey and Gordon alone once again.

“Is there any way to break out of here?” Gordon had stood and was peeking through the small, high window that seemed to be at ground level with the outside world. “If you shrunk down you could fit through these bars.” He tapped the bars on the window for emphasis.

“And leave you here on your own? N- no way, bro...” Benrey said. Gordon sighed and turned to where he was sat on the ground.

“Are you sure there isn’t any of that shrinking potion left?”

“Pretty sure. Fuckin’... Darnold didn’t have any, and he always has some. King probably stole it.”

“Can’t you just...” Gordon made a vague gesture with his hands, “make it appear, or whatever?” Finally, it was Benrey’s turn to roll his eyes.

“Can’t make shit appear unless I know where it is. Dumbass.”

Gordon held his hands up in front of him. “Alright, makes sense.” With a sigh, he flopped back down onto the hard ground next to his friend, unsurprised when Benrey cuddled up to him. What _was_ surprising was the slight shivering.

“Are you cold again?”

_“Mnh..._ kinda.”

The cell was pretty chilly, so once again Gordon pulled off his jacket, draping it over his friends' shoulders. On a whim, he also tugged Benrey up into his lap. Benrey made a small noise of surprise that sounded not unlike when someone picks up a cat without said cats consent, but he soon settled down and curled up against Gordon’s chest.

“Better?” Gordon asked, voice soft.

“Mhm...”

Gordon reached up one of his hands to scratch behind Benrey’s ear again, causing him to tense up a fraction before practically melting into it. He buried his face in the side of Gordon’s neck. Gordon could feel him blushing.

“You’re adorable.”

Benrey’s ears flicked. “Wha?” He leaned back to look at Gordon, expression dazed and pupils blown out wide. Gordon’s hand had moved to fiddle with a bit of Benrey’s hair. Both their faces were red.

“I said you’re cute, dude.”

There was a beat of silence where Benrey’s eyes flickered around, looking everywhere but at Gordon. Then he broke it.

“Kiss?”

Instead of answering, Gordon brought his free hand up to tilt Benrey’s face up towards him. There was only a moment of hesitation before they closed the gap between them. Benrey’s wide eyes slipped closed.

Keeping one hand on Gordon’s chest (he could feel how fast the human’s heart was beating; it was really fast) he used to other to reach around the back of his neck, pressing them even closer together.

It was a little scratchy and a whole lot of perfect.

Unfortunately, they did have to break apart for air at some point. They were left breathless, foreheads touching. As soon as they had their breath back Gordon leaned in again, though only for a brief second of brushed lips. Turns out kissing someone with sharp teeth wasn’t all that bad.

“That was, uh... kinda gay.” Benrey said after a moment. Gordon opened his eyes and looked up at Benrey through his eyelashes, an eyebrow raised. “You’re ugly— what?” Benrey blurted out without thinking. Gordon laughed softly, having gotten the message well enough.

”How... touching.” They looked up to see the King peering in at them through the bars. He didn't look like he was very touched. ”Mr Freeman, I'm going to need you to... come with me.”

Neither of them moved.

Within an instant, the King had snapped his fingers and frozen everything in time except himself and Gordon, washing the world in a bluish-purple hue. Benrey had gone stiff in his lap, claws still clutched in his shirt. The almost imperceptible flexing of his hands told Gordon he wasn’t frozen at all, but he was clearly well-practised in faking it.

”Wh- what did you just do?”

“You _will_ come with me, Mr Freeman.”

“And how do you expect me to do that? I’ve got a cat in my lap, everyone knows if you’ve got a cat on you you’re trapped until they decide to move.”

The King gave him a bemused glare. He snapped his fingers again.

Nothing happened.

A frown creased the King's brow. He snapped his fingers again, looking satisfied as Benrey vanished this time. Gordon was alarmed for a moment before noticing a second pair of yellow eyes in the hall outside his cell.

“Teleports behind you.”

“Wha—?” The King spun around, confusion evident on his face even as it met with Benrey’s waiting claws. A cry of pain spilled from his lips, followed swiftly by a growl of anger. He had fallen back against the bars of the cell in his shock. Benrey took that as an opportunity to pin him there while Gordon scrambled to get up and yank the King’s arms through the gaps in the bars and pin them behind his back.

“Pfft, old man can’t even... can’t even beat a caged human,” Benrey teased, “he’s too sexy for you.”

“Benrey, I do _not_ think that now is the time.” Gordon shook his head even as his face heated up. He fought to keep a hold of the King’s arms as the old man struggled. Thankfully due to the angle and the vice grip Benrey now had on his neck it wasn’t too hard.

“Let go of me you... scoundrels.” The King hissed.

“Damn, royalty with the power to stop time and you can’t even get out of an armlock? You really need to work on your physical strength, dude.” Gordon taunted. The King gave a short bark of a laugh.

“What if I send you back to your precious home right now, hm?” Gordon could practically hear the sneer in his voice despite not being able to see his face, “I wonder how Benrey would fare against me on his own...? Ah, wait a moment, I already know.”

That’s when it clicked in Gordon’s head. The scratches and scrapes from last night were the King’s doing. Was Benrey only brave enough to fight back now because Gordon was here?

Gordon yanked his hands back. The King’s shoulders popped out of their sockets with a painful sounding crack noise.

“Gah! Why, you—“ the purple haze over the world disappeared as time unfroze.

Unfortunately, that meant that the creatures that served as guards were now able to swarm into the hall to try and pull Benrey off their master. Thankfully the King seemed to be fully incapacitated at this point so Benrey was free to face off against the horde of living body horror. Gordon and the King watched as Benrey teleported to and subsequently killed each of the guards at rapid speeds. A snapped neck, a limb clawed or bitten off, and they were finished.

Gordon was glad he never got on Benrey’s bad side.

Finally, the King cried for the guards to stop coming. He knew that they were no match for Benrey.

“Baby... baby king. Gotta get his guards to...” Benrey blinked a few times, “to do everything for him... lol.” He walked over to one of the decapitated guards, ignoring the King’s death glare to roll the body over. He plucked a key from a chain around its neck and walked back over to unlock Gordon’s cell.

Once it was open Gordon immediately let go of the King’s arms, leaving him to drop to the ground with another cry of pain. The way his arms were bent did not look comfortable.

Benrey practically jumped into Gordon’s waiting arms, but not without first very deliberately stepping on the King’s crumpled form.

“Did you like my sick skills? Kill tricks? Three-sixty Ben-scope?”

Gordon squeezed his eyes shut and looked down in a quiet laugh. “Yeah, bro, it was super cool.” Benrey’s pupils blew out wide as his eyes practically sparkled. Gordon looked at him with a fond smile and leaned down to give him another kiss.

Then there was a sharp cracking sound behind him. He had forgotten about the King.

They both turned towards where the King was still hunched over on the ground, his arms now back in their proper position. He raised up a hand and snapped his fingers.

Gordon instantly felt dizzy and had to lean up against Benrey to stop himself from falling over.

“Hey, wh... why do I feel all... fuzzy?”

“Nooo, no not yet...” Benrey mumbled. He pulled Gordon’s wandering gaze back down to look at him. “I don’t want you to go...”

“Is that what’s happening? I don’t...” he lifted a hand to his head and squeezed his teary eyes shut, not seeing his own body gradually glitching out of existence. “I don’t wanna leave you alone with him...” _I don’t wanna leave you at all._

“I-I’ll be fine bro, I got a sick gay skill tree bonus now ‘cause of you.”

Gordon opened his eyes for a second and let out a small laugh.

“Kiss?”

Benrey gladly obliged.

As Gordon fizzled away into a swiftly dissipated cloud of static, Benrey fell forward to lean against the wall. The jacket had disappeared with its owner, so he was left cold again in more ways than one.

“Goodbye, Gordon...” _I’m gonna squish that caterpillar, I don’t care how good his stuff is._

The King laughed. He had finally stood up and was just watching the whole scene take place. Benrey turned to glare at him, claws already prepared to strike.

“Now, I can deal with y—“

Just then the entire entourage from the tea party burst into the dungeons, wielding various sharp kitchen utensils.

“Let our friends go!” Coomer cried.

“Gordon’s gone.” Benrey deadpanned.

“Let our friend go!”

The King threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. “Oh, come _on_!”


	9. Epilogue

Gordon woke up under a large oak tree to the sound of his ex-wife calling his name.

He got up and stumbled back to the dwindling party, disoriented but apparently no longer drunk. He could still vividly remember the dream he’d had and was cycling over the events in his mind to make sure he wouldn’t forget.

When he got back to the outdoor party area it seemed as though almost everyone had left, either because of the late hour or because there was currently an old man working very hard to set a table on fire.

As soon as she spotted him, Maria stormed over, her wife in tow,

“Where the hell have you been, Gordon? We looked all over for you, you were gone for two whole h— what’s that in your hair?” Her annoyance and worry quickly vanished to make way for curiosity. Gordon frowned and reached a hand up to his hair.

What he pulled out was unfortunately not a ribbon, but a delicate blue glass rose. Gordon held it in front of him, watching as the light through it refracted into rainbows.

‘ _Where did you get that from?_ ’ Maria’s wife, Penn, signed.

“It was, uh... a gift.” Gordon shook his head quickly to break out of the daze he’d fallen under. He tucked the flower into the pocket of his jacket. “Oh yeah, um... sorry for wandering off, I think I passed out under a tree or something. What’s... going on here?”

Gordon was referring to the now happily raging table fire that two remarkably familiar men were cheering about. There was another small group of people having some kind of drinking competition at the bar.

‘ _Some of my relatives invited friends_.’ Penn looked forlornly at the table, mouthing what looked like _expensive tablecloths_.

“They were fine up until most of the older people and Joshua went to bed, I guess they took that as their cue to get rowdy,” Maria gave a short laugh, “dunno what I expected, it is a wedding after all.”

They chatted for a few more minutes before someone got Gordon’s attention with a harsh whistle.

“Yo, orange jacket guy! Get over here!” _Why did that voice sound so familiar?_

He shared a look with Maria before venturing over to the bar to see what was happening. When he got there he stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. His fingers found the glass flower and he found comfort in running his thumb along it.

“Uh... hi?”

“Wanna drink with us?” Asked a short man with a mess of dyed dark blue hair and his face painted to look like a skeleton. His eyes were a strange mix of green and gold that caught Gordon off guard for a moment.

“Um...”

Glancing around, Gordon realised all four of the people in this group looked familiar. _You probably just saw them earlier in the night, Gordon. Don’t make it weird._

“You good, bro?

“Oh, uh, yeah. Sure, I’ll- I’ll drink with you guys.”

“Fuck yeah!” Cheered a lanky man who was seemingly only still standing due to the two other men holding him up. “We sh- we should do something crazy!”

“Tommy, remember what happened last time you said that?” Dar— The taller of the two other men asked.

“Nope!”

“He stripped naked and broke into some old guys house.” The blue-haired man supplied at Gordon’s confused look. “I’m Ben, by the way.”

“Gordon.”

Ben’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, you’re Maria’s ex, right? That’s sucks lol. First drinks on me then.”

Gordon tilted his head with a slight frown. “The drinks are free.”

“Exactly!” Ben grinned up at him before promptly hopping behind the bar and setting about getting drinks himself, much to the hired bartenders resigned dismay. Apparently, this had already happened multiple times.

The other three introduced themselves as Forzen, Darnold, and Tommy, and Gordon felt like he was going to pass out again. He gladly accepted the drink shoved into his hands by Ben; at this point he needed it.

Maria and Penn had managed to get the fire under control by throwing a bucket of what was previously ice over it. Once it was out the two old men that started it were nowhere to be seen, and nobody left at the party seemed to have any clue who they were. Not having any leads they collectively decided to move on and get blackout drunk before the sun rose.

* * *

When Gordon woke up the next afternoon he found himself in one of the bedrooms in Maria’s aunts' mansion, cuddled up to Ben and thankfully fully clothed. The other three men were in a pile on the floor with no blankets but one cushion haphazardly thrown over Tommy’s bare butt.

The glass rose was sitting in a half-full shot glass on the nightstand beside him, thankfully unharmed.

His shuffling around had apparently awoken Ben, as he felt fingers digging into the front of his shirt. The skeleton face paint had smudged all over the sheets and Gordon’s shirt in the night, leaving only a black smear across Ben’s eyes and around his mouth.

“Mmh... you’re warm.” Ben mumbled, nuzzling closer to him and making a soft noise that almost sounded like purring.

“What are you, a cat?”

“Could be...”

Gordon scoffed. He reached up to scratch an itch on the back of his head only to find his hair had been tied up at some point. He pulled the hair tie out; it was blue, and one of those ones with a decorative bow glued on.

“Is this yours?” Gordon asked Ben. He cracked open one gold eye and peered up at the elastic band.

“Yeah. You uh... kept complainin’ ‘bout your hair or whatever. You can keep it, I got loads.”

“... thanks, Ben.”

“No problemo, I’m going back to sleep now.”

Gordon laughed softly.

“I think I will too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOO it’s done! To everyone who’s commented and kudos’d on this I love you and would like to blow you a platonic smooch :•*   
> Especially getting closer to the end a lot of things didn’t go quite how I planned but hey sometimes stuff just writes itself lol. Plus I’m not used to writing and actually finishing multi-chapter fics, this is the first fandom where I’ve managed it jshvjsg 
> 
> So yeah uuuuuh tell me what you thought of it I guess? Critique is very welcome my writing skills are a bit uuuuuuh. Iffy? Mediocre? Or maybe I just read my own writing too much, who knows!
> 
> Anyways bye love you follow me on tumblr @teams-nice I like Forzen

**Author's Note:**

> The beetlejuice themed wedding was a mix of being an excuse to give Gordon striped pants, and just because I think it’s funny


End file.
